Sleep-Umzzz took third place last year offering grown-ups a chance to do what they used to do in kindergarten: nap.
The father and son team of Robert and Paul Dollar proposed building yacht-style berths that would be installed in public places and rented by the hour. Their ideal audience? The groggy masses of jet-lagged travelers who haunt airport lobbies looking for shut-eye.
The Sleep-Umzzz cabins would each have a bunk and a chair and would give hollow-eyed souls the opportunity to check their e-mail, make a call, watch a movie or sleep. While there are competing concepts already in the market, none offer the space or privacy that the Dollars envision.
''Other people are coming up with chairs and hoods that you can [use to] isolate yourself, but that does nothing'' for, say, a mother traveling with children or ''someone who wants to kick off their shoes and get some work done,'' said Robert Dollar.
The concept found fertile ground with our judges. But nine months later, the dream is still dormant.
While the Dollars were able to make contacts at Miami International Airport -- where they imagined a warren of Sleep-Umzzz cubbies would be a hit -- and have shared their plans with three investors, they've yet to find the roughly $266,000 they need to launch the venture in earnest.
Still, the duo believe the plan will work. By renting out the modular cubbies at $20 for the first three hours and $10 for each additional hour, the Dollars expect they would break even at 60 percent occupancy of the 16-cabin array they envisioned.
There's a sense of urgency to the venture. On occasion they hear about other companies toying with similar concepts, said Paul Dollar, 19, a film and design student at Miami Dade College. ``It's going to pop up eventually if we don't do it.''
Recently the duo have been revisiting the plan and considering taking it to an airline that may be interested in co-branding the project.
It's worth a shot, said Paul.
''There's nothing worse than not trying,'' he said.
